So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

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More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of the past The past The human condition

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Great Gatsby

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Closing lines Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, ch. 9.

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A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald about effects of the past: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald

One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender is the Night

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More information about this quote
Topic
Emotional scars

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Source
Tender is the Night
Medium
Novel
Language
English
Time
1934 1930s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Tender is the Night." Scribner's Magazine, Jan. 1934 - Apr. 1934.

Current Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the Night. Scribners, 1995, ch. 14.

Another quote from the 1920s

The world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water welling from the earth, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot.

Henry Beston

More information about this quote
Topic
Man and nature Alienation The elements Nature

Author

Henry Beston
Source
The Outermost House
Genre
Nature writing Autobiography and memoir
Language
English
Time
1928 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1928, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Holt Paperbacks, 2003, ch. 1.

Another quote about The human condition

And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.

William Shakespeare

As You Like It

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More information about this quote
Topic
Aging Mortality The human condition
Speaker
Jaques

Author

William Shakespeare
Source
As You Like It
Medium
Play
Genre
Comedy (play)
Language
English
Time
1616 1610s 17th century
Era
European Renaissance
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 2, sc. 7.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 7.

Another quote of the following type Metaphor, analogy and simile

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnets

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Read the Sonnets at The Folger Shakespeare Library
More information about this quote
Topic
Summer The ephemeral Seasons

Author

William Shakespeare
Source
Sonnet 18 Shakespeare's Sonnets
Medium
Sonnet Poem
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile Question
Language
English
Time
1609 1600s 17th century
Era
European Renaissance
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Shake-speares Sonnets. London: Thomas Thorpe, 1609, sonnet 18, I. 1.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "The Sonnets." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, sonnet 18.